Group items tagged

This is a link to an archived session from the 2013 Leadership in Educational Technology Virtual Conference. The session links CoP as a model for professional learning communities. At the link you will find the downloadable research paper as well as a link to a recording of the session.

I had to check this out because the concept of Guild was introduced to me last year with 3DGameLab. I was happy to see one of the presenters is Steve Isaacs because I met him last summer while playing in the 3DGameLab. I understand he is now in the EdD program, so it makes sense he would do a presentation on this type of connection. I have not spent enough time listening to our EdD students, so thank you for bringing this presentation to our attention.

This paper describes the purpose of personal learning networks as they pertain to each individual. It includes a list of tools and their individual purposes.

This video shows George Siemens describing connectivism in a conference setting. He describes the difference between the traditional systems of learning our students participate in where they hear and repeat content and what he terms a "meaningful" learning experience.

This is a YouTube video of George Siemens discussing his ideas about networks, connections, and social learning. Siemens suggests we should, "Emphasize connections... and not networks." If we wish to understand learning we need to understand how connections form, and why.

This blog gives a very brief definition of a personal learning environment and then includes a video created by a seventh grade students that describes her personal learning environment.

This is a blog post summarizing the annual ISTE conference in, I think, 2011. I really love the video here. It is of a 7th graders experience with her PLN. It shows how simple, fun, and rewarding a PLN can be.

Cool resource told from the perspective of a 7th grader learning with PLNs. I also like how the post references PLNs importance by mentioning its place in the Horizon Report.

As is the case with many academic theroists, I admit that I find Siemens (the co-ideological leader of the connectivist movement) much more engaging to listen to than to try read. I didn't think I would stay with this for the full hour, but I did. I love the citation of the TS Eliot quote "Hell is a place where nothing connects" and its discussion here relative to the cognitive overload that many modern day learners are experiencing (i.e., too many resources, too difficult to assess what is worthy and what is crap). Highly recommended.

A nonprofit association dedicated to integrating information technology into higher education. They have a blog as well as information about research and publications, conferences and events, professional development, and ideas for how to integrate technology into higher education.

Not only does this resource provide a solid description of what a PLN is, it also answers the important "why do I need one" question. It was particularly helpful to get an idea of how social media is essential to a strong PLN.

A great article that offers many valid and important reasons that an instructor should join PLNs.

This article supports why we all need to join PLN! Great read!

I really connect to theory through hearing about practice. In this article by Tom Whitby for Edutopia, he shares 6 different stories from 6 different educators who have begun to engage with online professional learning networks. I connected to this article because I had the same path as many of these educators. Whether it was the teacher who heard someone at a conference or the 29 year veteran who found herself in a 1:1 MacBook class, they all began peripherally and then developed into active participants in their online PLNs. This article is a pretty good setup for our upcoming adventures.

It was interesting to see most of their stories had to do with Twitter. I have resisted Twitter for so long because I do not understand it at all! Guess it's time to learn.

Reading personal stories from teachers really helps me see how educators are using Twitter, and other technologies, in the classroom. I appreciated reading the variety of ways these teachers use Twitter to communicate with students and connect with other educators professionally. I'm beginning to see the value of Twitter as a professional network builder!

The authors springboard from a Cornell University study of the difficulties that humanities doctoral students have in finishing their degree to discuss the ways libraries can help improve student success. They show that the establishment of communities of practice are a necessary component of the success of doctoral students in the humanities. They then advocate for libraries to create and support these communities through providing designated space for doctoral students to collaborate and share information in the library and by offering discipline-specific research skills workshops.

This short journal article describes how one teacher in Louisiana uses Twitter to find and joing professional learning networks. She uses Twitter to collaborate with teachers on lessons. She also leads a weekly chat to discuss a variety of educational topics. In addition, the journal explains what Twitter is and how to use it for a complete beginner.

I appreciated the idea from this article that relationships started on Twitter can expand beyond Web 2.0: "Connections which begin online may lead to face-to-face meetings at conferences." Likewise, the river analogy helped me see how Twitter can be interpreted and integrated into an individual's personal learning network: "Consider a Tweet as an 'on-ramp' to deeper learning." Thanks for posting this link!

This research effort developed by Barbara F. Hartigan, Ed.D. and Marialice B.F.X. Curran, Ph.D at University of Saint Joseph that looks at connectivism in the context of using social media as a mentorship program for pre-service teachers. It is based off the researchers witnessing teachers on Twitter who engage in the Twitter chat #kinderchat mentoring a first year kindergarten teacher through their weekly chats. This developed into a research project where they embedded social media into the program for 19 pre-service teachers. They used mostly Twitter, Skype, and blogging and found that all of the participants learn from and value learning and teaching ideas and methodology obtained from their social media interactions. They note that next steps would be to follow those educators into their classrooms to see their continued development using social media.